Over the last few months, I’ve taken Idunnohowmany photos of these trees, just below the top Hillside Dam and I’ve never really captured their size. So this time, I decided not to even bother, and just aim to show the tree how it appears when standing on the dam wall.
Category : Flora
Umkhaya Tree
The rains…
As Matabeleland awaits the rains, it gets hot. Very hot. Even the wind is hot! Tar melts, the skies are relentlessly blue, and yet the trees have enough energy to bring out new leaves and flowers.
This pic below was taken on the last day of August:
The red colour are the calyces – turning yellow within a month:
Both these pics are taken at much the same time of the day, and from the same rocky outcrop.
Wild Pear…
Or Dombeya Rotundifolia…
Taken at Hillside Dams in the late evening.
http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/species.php?species_id=139880
Fairy tree…
Taken directly into the sun – once again, I’m very impressed with the way this camera handles light.
This is very unusual foliage for dry old Matabeleland – a delightfully cool “natures garden.”
I bet the fairies are playing here under their mushrooms!
African Colours…
African sun provides bright light and luckily to compensate, bright colours:
The next one are acacia flowers, fallen among aloes!
Cousin IT and a Poinsettia…
I took this pic at the Vumba Botanical Gardens!
Vumba Botanical Gardens…
It was overcast and cold, the day we visited this awesome garden.
There were only a few other people, and I was able to amble slowly along the paths, savouring the atmosphere – the silence, the wonderful trees.
The water was like a mirror…
Love the cute little bridges…
There are benches everywhere..
And the trees…to die for!!!
Trees in the Zambezi Valley…
This tree is at the hot spring in Binga
This one is also in Binga, the lake in the background.
This amazing tree is at the Mlibizi Hotel.
And the last one, directly opposite Mlibizi Resort
Aloes in Manicaland…
The aloes were flowering when we worked in Manicaland recently. Below is a ‘natures garden’ at a rather unspectacular place called Kudziwa.
The church, where we surveyed for water, is on the top of a granite kopjie. The bright aloes will be faded when the Msasa come out (very soon!)
Below, taken at the Vumba Botanical gardens…
Out walking in the Vumba, I spied that bright red dot clinging precariously to the side of a granite kopjie:
Closer inspection! (Dontcha just LOVE the plant in the foreground – I’d describe it as ‘frazzled’ how I feel, on occasion!)
Taken overlooking Mozambique…
Imagine how pleased we were to stay at a (lovely place called Outside Inn) in the Vumba with aloes in prolific flower in the garden. This is the view from the front veranda.
The bird is a bonus.
This is the entrance to ‘Outside Inn’ – only a few kilometre from the Leopard Rock Hotel. It’s a cute little cottage (three bedrooms and two bathrooms, plenty firewood and all to ourselves for $50.00 per night!!!)
Nyamuziwa Falls, Nyanga…
This water was cold!!!
And the day was rather misty…
I’m a little scared of heights, and the cliffs are pretty steep.
The wild-flowers are lovely near the falls…
These (below) were like a dried arrangement.
Some pretty odd ones too!
